Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1879 — A Talking-Machine. [ARTICLE]

A Talking-Machine.

During more than a century inventors have turned their ingenuity to constructing machines capable of imitating the human voice, though what practical purpose they might serve if ever so perfect it is difficult to discover. One of the latest of these efforts, and perhaps the most successful, is a machine made by M. Faber. It consists essentially of three parts—the wind-producing system, the sound-making apparatus, and the articulating arrangement. As for the first, nothing particular need be said; it is simply a series of bellows. The second, the sound-producer, the larynx, is an ivory tube so constructed that within certain limits the length may be varied so as to cause a difference in tone produced. Probably he would have been more successful had he adopted some more elastic material. The articulating apparatus iueludes a part for soundiug the vowels and another for pronouncing the consonants. The former are due to the passage of air through openings of different shapes, made in diaphragms placed successively in the current of air by the action of levers moved by the fingers; in addition a special cavity, destined to produce nasal sounds, can be put in cominflniShtion with the former at pleasure by means cf a particular lever. The consonants are produced by pieces, the action of which is analogous to that oi the lips, the teeth and the tongue, and the rolling of the R is caused by a wheel. All these imitation organs are put in motion by fourteen keys very ingeniously disposed in a way to produce the necessary intensity of action and variation in sequence of the parts destined to pronounce a syllable. The number of fourteen keys is sufficient, for by certain variations in the touch the intended sound can be regulated as strong or weak at pleasure. As might be expected, the laDguage of the machine is very monotonous, and is by no means perfect, as some sounds produce a much better effect than others; however, in general, the words pronounced are easily understood. They cannot be compared to the changes in the human voice, and whatever improvements the machine may receive, the question still remains, What use is it? — Galignani’s Messenger, Paris.

American Girls Marrying Englishmen. Lord Grantley married last week Miss K. Mac Vickers, a young American lady, who has acquired fame from her beauty. It is curious how many American girls marry Englishmen. This is because they know how to make themselves pleasant. English girls are, as a rule, either too gushing and talkative, or have nothing to say for themselves. American girls unite the tact and savoir vivre of tho French woman with the solid qualities 6f the Anglo-Saxon race. They know how. to set off their natural advantages with dress, and they are almost always philosophically good tempered. London Truth.

Mr. Gardner, an English consular officer in China, speaking as one who had spent much time in visiting the opium-shops, and who had “tried upon himself the experiment of immoderate opium-smoking,” holds that, when all has been said against the drug, “it is incontrovertible that thousands of hard-working people are indebted to its use for the continuance of lives agreeable to themselves and useful to society,”